The Indian city of Kanpur reports on an outbreak of the virus Zika, which hit at least 89 people, including 17 children. The heath authorities confirmed on Monday all of those people have tested positive for the Zika pathogen.
Zika, firstly discovered in 1947, continues to hit the population, Dr Nepal Singh, chief medical officer of Uttar Pradesh state, said. The mosquito-borne pathogen reached epidemic proportions in Brazil in 2015, six years after, it reached India.
“There has been a surge in cases of the Zika virus and the health department has formed several teams to contain the spread,” Dr Singh says and adds there is one woman who is pregnant and doctors are paying special attention towards her.
The fresh Zika cases have been reported in Amit Mohan Prasad state, while for Uttar Pradesh, it is the first cases of infection. According to the top health official, the first Zika case in the industrial city of Kanpur was detected on October 23 and the number of cases has increased over the past week.
At least 89 people, including 17 children are testing positive because they are doing very aggressive contact tracing, the doctors said. The Kanpur authorities were increasing their surveillance of the outbreak and eliminating breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that transmit the virus, Dr Singh said.
